www.newyorkencounter.org1 We embark on the journey of life spurred by a promise of happiness in our heart. But then, fear of the unknown makes us hesitant, especially if the destination is not certain. Desire choked by fear appears to be the common experience of our time.
We strive to build relationships and overcome divisions, and yet we end up stifling true dialogue, due to preconceptions or conformity to the demands of political correctness. We dream of achieving greatness in some dimension of our lives, and yet we settle for a comfortable life. We ache for something new (and constantly check our smart phones in expectation), and yet we abhor events that are out of our control. We crave stability, but we are unsure that what is true today will still be true tomorrow. We strive to be more “mindful” in the present, and yet our mind is always fleeing from the here and now. We desire belonging, and yet we dread relinquishing our freedom. We long to encounter a lover, a friend, a father who will break through our radical solitude, and yet we are afraid of losing ourselves.
We long to sail on the sea of life and yet we are afraid of leaving our safe harbor.
What is the final word on man’s desire? Is there an attraction capable of overcoming our fears and drawing us out to the open waters that our hearts yearn for?
We invite you to a weekend of public discussion, exhibits, and live performances to encounter people who are not afraid to follow the desire of their hearts.
The ‘I’ finds itself again when it encounters a presence that brings this announcement: ‘What your heart is made for does exist!’ (L. Giussani)
2 3 Friday, Saturday, Sunday January 15-17, 2016
METROPOLITAN PAVILION 125 West 18th Street New York, NY 10011
3 DAYS
Conferences GROUND FLOOR Presentations Auditorium Discussions Displays Information booths Exhibits Media booth Displays Kids Corner Bookstore Concerts Checkroom Performances Café 2ND FLOOR Original Productions /Our Sunday Visitor Exhibit Hall Meeting Point Exhibits Food Court 4TH FLOOR /Conference Room The Human Adventure Series Bookstore Exhibit presentations Kids Corner Meet the Speaker 350 Volunteers 5TH FLOOR 40,000 sq. ft. Venue Food Court
www.newyorkencounter.org4 INDEX
New York Encounter 2016 Theme 2
Letter of Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, Apostolic Nuncio to the United States 3
General Information 4
Schedule at a Glance Auditorium events 6 The Human Adventure Series 9 Exhibit presentations and guided tours 10 Meet the Speaker 11
Kids Corner 12
Program Description Auditorium Events 13 Exhibits 22
Speakers 28
Music Performers 46
Composers 51
Sponsors 54
EVENTS ARE FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC EVENTS ARE FREE AND OPEN TO
5 At a Glance
GROUND FLOOR Auditorium | Displays | Information Booths | Media Booth Kids Corner | Bookstore | Checkroom | Café Our Sunday Visitor Exhibit Hall - 2ND FLOOR Exhibits Conference Room - 4TH FLOOR The Human Adventure Series | Exhibit presentations | Meet the Speaker 5TH FLOOR Food Court
AUDITORIUM /ground floor
FRIDAY, JANUARY 15
6:30 pm Spurred by the Promise of Happiness The Encounter opens with poetry read by actress Valerie SMALDONE, music performed by pianist Christopher VATH, and a conversation with Christian WIMAN, Poet and Senior Lecturer, Yale Divinity School, and Gregory WOLFE, Editor of Image
9:00 pm “A Boat Longing for the Sea and yet Afraid” (E. L. Masters) A dialogue between Fear and Desire through timeless American poetry and songs with the Shaw Street Collective
6 SATURDAY, JANUARY 16
10:00 am The Quest to Reduce Extreme Poverty Current trends in international development Speakers: Jackie ALDRETTE | Managing Director, AVSI-USA Chris BLATTMAN | Professor of Political Science, Columbia University Joakim KOECH | Principal, Cardinal Otunga High School, Nairobi, Kenya Paolo CAROZZA (moderator) | Director of the Kellogg Institute at Notre Dame University
11:30 am Doing Business in Uncharted Waters A dialogue on leading companies unafraid to explore new business horizons Speakers: Nancy ALBIN | Co-founder of Los Angeles Habilitation House Andreas WIDMER | Director of the Entrepreneurship Programs, Catholic University of America
2:00 pm Crossing to the Other Shore Stories of desire, sorrow, and forgiveness at the beginning of the Year of Mercy Speakers: Priscilla LA PORTE | sister of Cadet Matthew La Porte, recipient of the Airman Medal for his heroic actions during the April 16, 2007 Virginia Tech shooting Joshua STANCIL | former Inmate Fr. Peter John CAMERON, OP (moderator) | Editor-in-chief of Magnificat
4:00 pm Beyond the Pillars of Hercules The adventure of space exploration Speakers: Tom JONES | former Astronaut Lindsay BLAKELY (moderator) | Los Angeles Bureau Chief of Inc. magazine
6:00 pm “Setting Out on the Long Path of Renewal” (Pope Francis) Reflections on Pope Francis’s encyclical Laudato Si’ (On Care for Our Common Home) Speakers: Seán Cardinal O’MALLEY | Archbishop of Boston Jeffrey SACHS | Director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University Rebecca VITZ CHERICO (moderator) | Instructor in Spanish Studies, Villanova University
9:00 pm Psalms An evening of original musical reflections by 7 composers on the ancient and timeless verse of the Poet-King David, performed by Contemporaneous, directed by David BLOOM; and Ghostlight, directed by Evelyn TROESTER DEGRAF Tickets: $10/Open seating
7 SUNDAY, JANUARY 17
9:00 am Holy Mass Celebrated by Sean Cardinal O’MALLEY, Archbishop of Boston, with the Choir of Communion and Liberation, directed by Christopher VATH
11:00 am Longing for Freedom and Yet (Not) Afraid A talk by Fr. Julián CARRÓN, President of the Fraternity of Communion and Liberation 2:00 pm Longing for the Sea... and Leaving the Harbor Eyewitness accounts of stories of immigration and welcoming Speakers: Msgr. Ronald MARINO | Vicar for Migrant and Ethnic Apostolates Diocese of Brooklyn Giulio PISCITELLI | Photographer Stephen SANCHEZ (moderator) | Principal, Our Lady of Mount Carmel School, New York
4:00 pm “Your Love is Better than Life” (Psalm 62) A testimony on the life of Christians facing terror and death in the Middle East Speakers: Archbishop Amel NONA | exiled Chaldean Catholic Archbishop of Mosul, Iraq A refugee family in Erbil, Kurdistan (video) Fr. Pier Battista PIZZABALLA, OFM | Custos of the Holy Land Marta ZAKNOUN (moderator) | Journalist
6:00 pm Longing for You and With You not Afraid Concluding remarks with Maurizio MANISCALCO, President of New York Encounter, and John WATERS, Author
8:30 pm Farther than the Farthest Stars Final night of celebration in song with the volunteers
8 THE HUMAN ADVENTURE SERIES PEOPLE AT WORK; THE WORKS OF A PEOPLE
CONFERENCE ROOM /fourth floor SATURDAY, JANUARY 16
12:30 pm Heart and Education: the Foundations of a Healthy Business A conversation organized with Salone del Mobile.Milano, the most famous international furniture trade show Speakers: James BIBER | Architect Dario SNAIDERO | President, Snaidero USA Roberto SNAIDERO | Chairman of Salone del Mobile.Milano
7:00 pm The True Face of Personalized Medicine A presentation organized by the Association of Medicine and the Person Speakers: Marc BEAUCHAMP | Orthopedic surgeon Cristiano FERRARIO | Oncologist, Jewish General Hospital, Montreal 8:00 pm Longing for the Sea... as Pixar Views It A discussion organized by Crossroads on Inside Out Speakers: Peter FIELDS | Freshman at City College of New York Naomi GENUARD | Mother Margaret LARACY | Clinical Psychologist SUNDAY, JANUARY 17
1:00 pm The Fragmented Body A presentation organized by the Well-Read Mom reading group on Frankenstein by Mary Shelley Speakers: Maura-Kate COSTELLO | PhD candidate, University of Maryland Marcie STOKMAN | Well-Read Mom founder Margaret STOKMAN | high school student 3:00 pm A ship is safe in harbor, but that’s not what ships are built for: Education in the 21st Century A dialogue among educators and physicians organized by TeachCollab Speakers: Francesco BOIN | Rheumatologist, Director of the Scleroderma Clinic, UCSF Medical Center, San Francisco Peter STOKMAN | Cardiologist, Minneapolis Heart Institute, Crosby Carolina BRITO | Dean of Curriculum and Instruction, Cristo Rey High School, Boston 9 At a Glance
OUR SUNDAY VISITOR EXHIBIT HALL /second floor
A PEOPLE, A FACE, A NEWNESS IN EVERYDAY RUBBLE An Encounter with Christians in the Middle East
PRESENTATION (Conference Room /4th floor): January 15, 7:30 pm with Archbishop Amel NONA, exiled Chaldean Catholic Archbishop of Mosul, Iraq; and Marta ZAKNOUN, Journalist GUIDED TOURS Friday: 8:15 pm Saturday: 10:30 am | 12 pm | 1:30 pm | 3 pm | 4:30 pm | 5:45 pm | 7 pm | 8 pm Sunday: 10:15 am | 12:30 pm | 2 pm | 3:15 pm | 5:15 pm | 6:30 pm | 7:45 pm
GENERATING BEAUTY: NEW BEGINNINGS AT THE ENDS OF THE EARTH
PRESENTATION (Conference Room /4th floor): January 15, 8:15 pm with Joakim KOECH, Principal, Card. Otunga High School, Nairobi, Kenya, and Abby HOLTZ, High School Teacher in Maryland GUIDED TOURS Friday: 7:30 pm Saturday: 11 am | 12 pm | 1:30 pm | 3 pm | 4:30 pm | 5:15 pm Sunday: 10:15 am | 12 pm | 1:30 pm | 3 pm | 4:30 pm | 5:45 pm | 6:45 pm | 8 pm
“SIEMPRE ADELANTE!” KEEP MOVING FORWARD! The life and works of Junípero Serra, the saint who founded the California missions
PRESENTATION (Conference Room /4th floor): Janary 16, 3:15 pm with Rose Marie BEEBE, Professor of Spanish, Santa Clara University, and Robert SENKEWICZ, Professor of History, Santa Clara University GUIDED TOURS Friday: 8:15 pm Saturday: 11 am | 11:30 am | 1 pm | 2:30 pm | 4:45 pm | 6:15 pm | 7:15 pm | 8:15 pm Sunday: 10:15 am | 12:30 pm | 2 pm | 3:30 pm | 5 pm | 6:30 pm | 7:45 pm
10 EXPLORERS A journey to the edge of the solar system and beyond
PRESENTATION (Conference Room /4th floor): January 16, 5:15 pm with Maria Elena MONZANI, Astrophysicist, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory GUIDED TOURS Friday: 8:15pm Saturday: 10:30 am | 12 pm | 1:30 pm | 3 pm | 6 pm | 7:15 pm | 8:15 pm Sunday: 10:15 am | 12 pm | 1:30 pm | 3 pm | 4:30 pm | 5:45 pm | 6:45 pm | 8 pm
LITTLE WORLD AND MINIMAL STUFF Stories of extraordinary ordinary people told by Giovannino Guareschi, novelist, and Enzo Jannacci, songwriter
PRESENTATION (Conference Room /4th floor): January 17, 10:15 am with Giorgio VITTADINI, Professor of Statistics, State University of Milan, Italy GUIDED TOURS Friday: 8:15pm Saturday: 10 am | 11:30 am | 1 pm | 2:30 pm | 4:45 pm | 6:15 pm | 7:15 pm | 8:15 pm Sunday: 12 pm | 1:30 pm | 3 pm | 4:30 pm | 5:45 pm | 6:45 pm | 8 pm
CONFERENCE ROOM /fourth floor SATURDAY, JANUARY 16
1:30 pm Nancy ALBIN | Co-founder of Los Angeles Habilitation House Andreas WIDMER | Director of the Entrepreneurship Programs, Catholic University of America SUNDAY, JANUARY 17
12:30 pm Priscilla LA PORTE | sister of Cadet Matthew La Porte, recipient of the Airman Medal for his heroic actions during the April 16, 2007 Virginia Tech shooting Joshua STANCIL | former Inmate 5:30 pm Msgr. Ronald MARINO | Vicar for Migrant and Ethnic Apostolates Diocese of Brooklyn Giulio PISCITELLI | Photographer
11 ground floor
A place where children with their parents can experience the Encounter through games, crafts and activities!
This year at the Encounter there is a new proposal: a Kids Corner, a place where parents can take their children and be involved in something beautiful specifically thought of for them.
Under the supervision of their parents and guardians*, the Encounter volunteers will offer to young children (ages 3-8 years) beautiful activities such as drawing, crafting related to the Encounter theme, singing, face painting and more! Younger children are, of course, welcome because we will have some toys they can play with.
SATURDAY, JANUARY 16
10:30 am - 11:45 am 2:30 pm - 3:45 pm 4:30 pm - 5:45 pm SUNDAY, JANUARY 17
10:45 am - 12:00 pm 2:30 pm - 3:45 pm 4:30 pm - 5:45 pm
*Children at Kids Corner must be accompanied by a parent/caregiver at ALL times. 12 Description
FRIDAY, JANUARY 15
6:30 pm | Auditorium /ground floor Spurred by the Promise of Happiness The Encounter opens with poetry read by actress Valerie SMALDONE, music performed by pianist Christopher VATH, and a conversation with Christian WIMAN, Poet and Senior Lecturer, Yale Divinity School, and Gregory WOLFE, Editor of Image
“Expectation is the very structure of our nature, it is the essence of our soul. It is not something calculated: it is given. For the promise is at the origin, from the very origin of our creation. He who has made man has also made him as ‘promise.’ Structurally man waits; structurally he is a beggar; structurally life is a promise.”
— Msgr. Luigi Giussani, The Religious Sense, McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1997
The Encounter embarks on its 3-day journey exploring this promise that is the essence of our souls.
9:00 pm | Auditorium /ground floor “A Boat Longing for the Sea and yet Afraid” (E. L. Masters)
A dialogue between Fear and Desire through timeless American poetry and songs with the Shaw Street Collective
*Children at Kids Corner must be accompanied by a parent/caregiver at ALL times. 13 PROGRAM | SATURDAY, JANUARY 16 | AUDITORIUM
SATURDAY, JANUARY 16
10:00 am | Auditorium /ground floor The Quest to Reduce Extreme Poverty Current trends in international development Speakers: Jackie ALDRETTE | Managing Director, AVSI-USA Chris BLATTMAN | Professor of Political Science, Columbia University Joakim KOECH | Principal, Cardinal Otunga High School, Nairobi, Kenya Paolo CAROZZA (moderator) | Director of the Kellogg Institute at Notre Dame University
What does it mean to promote “development” and where do we place our hope for “success”?
The desire to make a positive contribution in the lives of others leads people into careers spanning economics, social services, education, health, and public service, all spurred by a desire of happiness that comes through service toward another. Yet, the world we live in is harsh, and this noble and beautiful desire is often reduced. It is reduced when work is separated from human experience, with its own desire, and the need for happiness is poured into helping others. It is reduced when the ultimate goal is narrowed down to the satisfaction of material needs, or to power. Furthermore, it is reduced when frustration seeps in and one is overwhelmed by a sense of impotence in front of an utterly complex set of inter-related problems. Falling into these traps risks burn-out, disillusionment and lowered expectations.
The panelists share their personal experience about what has driven their commitment to the field of international development, what they learned from failure and from success, and what energizes them to stick with it despite the challenges and immensity of the task.
Image “Sleeping Beggar, Havana” Artist: Walker Evans (American, St. Louis, Missouri 1903–1975 New Haven, Connecticut) Date: 1933 Credit Line: Walker Evans Archive, 1994 Medium: film negative Source: http://www.metmuseum.org/collection/the-collection-online/ search/272963?rpp=30&pg=1&ao=on&ft=beggar&pos=22
14 PROGRAM | SATURDAY, JANUARY 16 | AUDITORIUM
11:30 am | Auditorium /ground floor Doing Business in Uncharted Waters A dialogue on leading companies unafraid to explore new business horizons Speakers: Nancy ALBIN | Co-founder of Los Angeles Habilitation House Andreas WIDMER | Director of the Entrepreneurship Programs, Catholic University of America
“Work is an expression of being. This awareness is a breath of fresh air for the worker who toils in his workplace for eight hours and for the entrepreneur working hard to develop his business. But our being - that which the Bible calls “heart”- is made of courage, tenacity, cleverness, hard work; it is thirst for truth and happiness. There are no works, from the humble one of the housewife to the brilliant one of the designer that can escape this reference and this search for a complete satisfaction and human fulfillment...
Desire is the spark with which an engine gets started. Every human action is born from this phenomenon, from this dynamism which constitutes man. It’s desire that turns on ‘man’s engine.’ As a consequence, he starts looking for bread and water, for work, for a woman; he looks for a more comfortable armchair and a better house. He starts getting interested in the fact that some people have more than others, he looks at the fact that some people are treated in a certain way and he’s not, precisely because of the growing and maturing of these inspirations he has within himself.”
— Msgr. Luigi Giussani, “Notes from a talk to the General Assembly of the members of Compagnia delle Opere,” 1987
What gives the courage to change careers or to enter unexplored entrepreneurial territories? The speakers address these questions by recounting their own stories.
2:00 pm | Auditorium /ground floor Crossing to the Other Shore Stories of desire, sorrow, and forgiveness at the beginning of the Year of Mercy Speakers: Priscilla LA PORTE | sister of Cadet Matthew La Porte, recipient of the Airman Medal for his heroic actions during the April 16, 2007 Virginia Tech shooting Joshua STANCIL | former Inmate Fr. Peter John CAMERON, OP (moderator) | Editor-in-chief of Magnificat
15 PROGRAM | SATURDAY, JANUARY 16 | AUDITORIUM
“We need constantly to contemplate the mystery of mercy. It is a wellspring of joy, serenity, and peace. Our salvation depends on it. Mercy: the word reveals the very mystery of the Most Holy Trinity. Mercy: the ultimate and supreme act by which God comes to meet us. Mercy: the fundamental law that dwells in the heart of every person who looks sincerely into the eyes of his brothers and sisters on the path of life. Mercy: the bridge that connects God and man, opening our hearts to a hope of being loved forever despite our sinfulness.”
— Pope Francis, Misericordiae Vultus (Bull of indiction of the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy)
“This is the ultimate embrace of the Mystery, against which man—even the most distant, the most perverse or the most obscured, the most in the dark—cannot oppose anything, can make no objection. He can abandon it, but in so doing he abandons himself and his own good. The Mystery as mercy remains the last word even on all the awful possibilities of history. For this reason existence expresses itself, as ultimate ideal, in begging. The real protagonist of history is the beggar: Christ who begs for man’s heart, and man’s heart that begs for Christ.”
— Msgr. Luigi Giussani, “Testimony during the meeting of Pope John Paul II with the ecclesial movements,” May 30, 1998
The speakers share their stories of mercy and their experience of a loving Presence who was not afraid to cross the sea and reach the shores of their hearts.
16 PROGRAM | SATURDAY, JANUARY 16 | AUDITORIUM
4:00 pm | Auditorium /ground floor Beyond the Pillars of Hercules The adventure of space exploration Speakers: Tom JONES | former Astronaut Lindsay BLAKELY (moderator) | Los Angeles Bureau Chief of Inc. magazine
“And drawn by my yearning desire I went to see the great cup of the various and strange forms made by natural artifice, descending beneath shadowy rocks. I reached the entrance to a great cavern in front of which I remained somewhat amazed and ignorant of such a thing. I bent my back and put my tired hand on my knee, and with my right hand I brought darkness to my lowered and closed eyes; and often bent here and there to see if anything was to be discerned within; but this was banned by the great obscurity which was there. And after I stayed awhile, there arose in me two things, fear and desire—fear because of the menacing dark cave, and desire to see whether there were any miraculous things within.”
— Leonardo Da Vinci, unofficial English translation from Scritti Letterati
“I felt so … privileged to be part of a scene so obviously set by God. Emotions welled up inside: gratitude for the chance to experience this vista, wonder that our minds can appreciate God’s glories, humility at my miniscule place in God’s limitless universe.”
— From an interview with Dr. Tom Jones
Dr. Jones speaks about his motivation for being an astronaut, his experience of being in space, and what attracted him to this adventure to the point of overcoming natural fears.
17 PROGRAM | SATURDAY, JANUARY 16 | AUDITORIUM
6:00 pm | Auditorium /ground floor “Setting Out on the Long Path of Renewal” (Pope Francis) Reflections on Pope Francis’s encyclicalLaudato Si’ (On Care for Our Common Home) Speakers: Seán Cardinal O’MALLEY | Archbishop of Boston Jeffrey SACHS | Director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University Rebecca VITZ CHERICO (moderator) | Instructor in Spanish Studies, Villanova University
“What kind of world do we want to leave to those who come after us, to children who are now growing up? This question not only concerns the environment in isolation; the issue cannot be approached piecemeal. When we ask ourselves what kind of world we want to leave behind, we think in the first place of its general direction, its meaning and its values. Unless we struggle with these deeper issues, I do not believe that our concern for ecology will produce significant results. We need to see that what is at stake is our own dignity. The issue is one which dramatically affects us.”
— Pope Francis, Laudato Si’
Cardinal O’Malley and Dr. Sachs help the public to appreciate the concerns that moved Pope Francis to write Laudato Si’ and the impact the Encyclical is having on the political and economic world.
9:00 pm | Auditorium /ground floor Psalms An evening of original musical reflections by 7 composers on the ancient and timeless verse of the Poet-King David, performed by Contemporaneous, directed by David BLOOM; and Ghostlight, directed by Evelyn TROESTER DEGRAF
Tickets: $10/Open seating
Tickets are available at the door from the evening of Friday, January 15 through Saturday, January 16 at 8:30 pm
You can purchase tickets online at www.newyorkencounter.org/program/2016/1/16/psalms All tickets must be picked up at the ticket window, starting from Friday, January 15 at 6:30 pm through Saturday, January 16 at 8:30 pm (half hour before the performance starts). Please bring your receipt with you.
18 PROGRAM | SUNDAY, JANUARY 17 | AUDITORIUM
9:00 am | Auditorium /ground floor Holy Mass Celebrated by Sean Cardinal O’MALLEY, Archbishop of Boston, with the Choir of Communion and Liberation, directed by Christopher VATH
11:00 am | Auditorium /ground floor Longing for Freedom and Yet (Not) Afraid A talk by Fr. Julián CARRÓN, President of the Fraternity of Communion and Liberation
We all talk about freedom. But what is freedom and what is its origin? What does it have to do with desire and human fulfillment? A great deal of uncertainty surrounds these questions. As a result, we find ourselves progressively replacing personal risk and responsibility with rules, policies, and risk management directives. It is as if we were afraid of experiencing too much freedom, and thus willing to trade it for one of its many palliatives. But what if freedom were not something to be regulated but plumbed to its depths?
Fr. Carrón discusses the relationship between desire, freedom, and human fulfillment.
2:00 pm | Auditorium /ground floor Longing for the Sea... and Leaving the Harbor Eyewitness accounts of stories of immigration and welcoming Speakers: Msgr. Ronald MARINO | Vicar for Migrant and Ethnic Apostolates Diocese of Brooklyn Giulio PISCITELLI | Photographer Stephen SANCHEZ (moderator) | Principal, Our Lady of Mount Carmel School, New York
The current lively debate about immigration often overlooks that our country has been and is built by immigrants. The question is not how we face immigration, but how we face immigrants, real human beings with needs, talents and expectations. People do not go through the trauma of uprooting themselves and their families for frivolous reasons. And yet, a society hosting and welcoming the immigrants has to face profound and complex challenges.
What can overcome the distress of leaving your own country? What can surmount the mistrust to embrace an entire new way of living? And what can defeat the fear of welcoming a stranger in your home country?
The speakers share their own direct experience in facing these questions.
19 PROGRAM | SUNDAY, JANUARY 17 | AUDITORIUM
4:00 pm | Auditorium /ground floor “Your Love is Better than Life” (Psalm 62) A testimony on the life of Christians facing terror and death in the Middle East Speakers: Archbishop Amel NONA | exiled Chaldean Catholic Archbishop of Mosul, Iraq A refugee family in Erbil, Kurdistan (video) Fr. Pier Battista PIZZABALLA | Custos of the Holy Land Marta ZAKNOUN (moderator) | Journalist
“One of the most overwhelming human tragedies of recent decades are the terrible consequences that the conflicts in Syria and Iraq have on civilian populations as well as on cultural heritage. Millions of people are in a distressing state of urgent need. They are forced to leave their native lands. …There are many victims of this conflict: I think of all of them and I pray for all. However, I cannot fail to mention the serious harm to the Christian communities in Syria and Iraq, where many brothers and sisters are oppressed because of their faith, driven from their land, kept in prison or even killed. For centuries, the Christian and Muslim communities have lived together in these lands on the basis of mutual respect. Today the very legitimacy of the presence of Christians and other religious minorities is denied in the name of a ‘violent fundamentalism claiming to be based on religion.’ Yet, the Church responds to the many attacks and persecution that she suffers in those countries by bearing witness to Christ with courage, through her humble and fervent presence, sincere dialogue and the generous service in favor of whoever that are suffering or in need without any distinction.”
— Pope Francis, excerpt from the Address of the Participants of the Meeting organized by the Pontifical Council “Cor Unum” on the Iraqi-Syrian humanitarian crisis, September 17, 2015
What is the situation of Christians today in Iraq, Syria, and other parts of the Middle East? In that situation, is it still possible to look for happiness without being dominated by fear and hatred? Can one look at people of a different religion or culture without distrust or indifference, but rather as an occasion to deepen one’s own identity?
20 PROGRAM | SUNDAY, JANUARY 17 | AUDITORIUM
6:00 pm | Auditorium /ground floor Longing for You and With You not Afraid Concluding remarks with Maurizio MANISCALCO, President of New York Encounter, and John WATERS, Author
What is the final word on man’s desire? Is there an attraction capable of overcoming our fears and drawing us out to the open waters that our hearts yearn for?
8:30 pm | Auditorium /ground floor Farther than the Farthest Stars Final night of celebration in song with the volunteers
“Our hearts have to look out for this clarity that is distant, beyond the farthest stars but is present in our ‘present.’ Man sings when he has the experience of a promise of truth and beauty that is happening. What does your heart have to look out for? It has to look out for this present clarity that is beyond.”
— Msgr. Luigi Giussani
21 PROGRAM | EXHIBITS | OUR SUNDAY VISITOR EXHIBIT HALL /second floor
A People, a Face, a Newness in Everyday Rubble An Encounter with Christians in the Middle East
The Exhibit explores stories of persecuted Iraqi and Syrian Christians who fled their homeland and are now refugees in various camps and churches in Amman, Jordan and neighboring areas.
Through the different witnesses and the recounting of the daily lives of this population, the exhibit dwells on the human dynamic and the impact of Christian belonging in the midst of the difficult circumstances that the Christian minorities are facing.
Through panels, videos and music, the exhibit invites visitors to “encounter” these people, their beautiful tradition, their circumstances, their questions and their certainties.
When looking at the struggle and the faithfulness of Iraqi and Syrian Christians, one inevitably asks the question: What makes such a position possible? What can possibly sustain these persecuted families and us too in facing the reality we are confronted with today? Or as proposed to us by the NY Encounter: What is the final word on man’s desire? Is there an attraction capable of overcoming our fears and drawing us out to the open waters for which our hearts yearn?
PRESENTATION (Conference Room /4th floor) January 15, 7:30 pm with Archbishop Amel NONA, exiled Chaldean Catholic Archbishop of Mosul, Iraq; and Marta ZAKNOUN, Journalist
GUIDED TOURS Friday: 8:15 pm Saturday: 10:30 am | 12 pm | 1:30 pm | 3 pm | 4:30 pm | 5:45 pm | 7 pm | 8 pm Sunday: 10:15 am | 12:30 pm | 2 pm | 3:15 pm | 5:15 pm | 6:30 pm | 7:45 pm
22 PROGRAM | EXHIBITS | OUR SUNDAY VISITOR EXHIBIT HALL /second floor
Generating Beauty: New beginnings at the ends of the earth
In this exhibit, three case studies illustrate the lasting impact that the AVSI Foundation and its unique method have had on the lives of people living in poverty and marginalization around the world. From Ecuador to Kenya to Brazil, the Exhibit opens up windows into the pockets of beauty and new life which have been generated where AVSI and its partners have been present. Faced with the expansive suffering and inequalities that exist in the world, many times we fall into either indifference or idealism. AVSI Foundation presents this exhibit to tell the story of people so certain that reality is positive that they have gone to the ends of the earth to affirm this conviction.
Whether in the area of community support for women and children, in responding to malnutrition or in addressing the need for quality education, the exhibit portrays how AVSI’s method of accompanying people along the path of life does in fact bear lasting fruit. It is a method which prioritizes relationships, freedom and the infinite dignity of all human persons.
“If poverty has an antidote, it may well be beauty. Beauty in its deepest truest sense: the echo of, or residue of, or nostalgia for some greatness in ourselves that we have forgotten,” writes journalist John Waters in his introduction to the exhibit which he curated on behalf of AVSI Foundation.
The stories of real people whose lives have been radically changed persuade us that true human development arises from a truly human gaze, as if by contagion, person to person, dignity sparking dignity. And that generates an infectious beauty in the world.
PRESENTATION (Conference Room /4th floor) January 15, 8:15 pm with Joakim KOECH, Principal, Card. Otunga High School, Nairobi, Kenya, and Abby HOLTZ, Middle School Teacher in Maryland
GUIDED TOURS Friday: 7:30 pm Saturday: 11 am | 12 pm | 1:30 pm | 3 pm | 4:30 pm | 5:15 pm Sunday: 10:15 am | 12 pm | 1:3 0pm | 3 pm | 4:30 pm | 5:45 pm | 6:45 pm | 8 pm
23 PROGRAM | EXHIBITS | OUR SUNDAY VISITOR EXHIBIT HALL /second floor
“Siempre Adelante!” Keep Moving Forward! The life and works of Junípero Serra, the saint who founded the California missions
The exhibit aims to underline that the missions that Saint Serra established were focal points designed for the integral Christian education of the Native American inhabitants. In the center was the church, around which revolved the life of the entire community. Christian education, moreover, was not limited to learning doctrine. The church was surrounded by classrooms, stables, liveries, grain mills, warehouses and workshops carrying out the different functions of the time, such as blacksmithing, tile making, tanning, and olive oil and wine production. Seeds were brought from the Mediterranean world and readily adapted to California, in many cases with notable advantages, when admirable fruit orchards were developed. The missions were a wholly self-sustaining enterprise, around which a new civilization developed.
The main protagonists of this civilizing work were the Indians themselves. They, together with thousands of colonists, brought from Baja California and Sonora, were the ones who built the roads, the presidios, the ports, and the missions. The beautiful cathedrals of adobe that gave the “California Mission Style” so much fame in the world were the fruit of the work of an entire people. In their building, the natives learned the most advanced architecture of those times, improving it with their innate artistic sensibility. And more than that, the experience of the temple, “sign of the nearness of God to man,” opened to the California native a new horizon in his relationship with God. The native peoples that inhabited the missions also learned from the friars to play instruments, read music, and sing, creating original compositions that combined European melodies with their own ancestral musical tradition.
Late in his life, in conversation with his lifelong friend Francisco Palou, Junípero Serra would have this to say about the enthusiasm that overtook him during his years as a professor in Mallorca, an enthusiasm which would be the impetus for the establishment of the great mission system in California: “It has been for no other reason than to rekindle in my heart those great desires that I had since the novitiate reading the lives of the saints… but let us give many thanks to God who is beginning to fulfill my desires and let us ask Him that it be for His greater glory and the conversion of souls.”
PRESENTATION (Conference Room /4th floor) Janary 16, 3:15 pm with Rose Marie BEEBE, Professor of Spanish, Santa Clara University, and Robert SENKEWICZ, Professor of History, Santa Clara University
GUIDED TOURS Friday: 8:15 pm Saturday: 11 am | 11:30 am | 1 pm | 2:30 pm | 4:45 pm | 6:15 pm | 7:15 pm | 8:15 pm Sunday: 10:15 am | 12:30 pm | 2 pm | 3:30 pm | 5 pm | 6:30 pm | 7:45 pm
24 PROGRAM | EXHIBITS | OUR SUNDAY VISITOR EXHIBIT HALL /second floor
Explorers A journey to the edge of the Solar system and beyond
Researching the unknown is one of the deepest aspects of human nature. Our innate need for novelty represents a continuous prompt to “go beyond,” to be open to meet the unexpected, the unknown, the “other” (be it another person, another continent, another planet). Nowadays, science is a unique form of exploration that allows us to expand our knowledge of the physical world to limits that had never been reached before. But there is a precise branch of research that embodies, in modern terms, the same adventure of the ancient marines: space exploration.
In spite of the great risks, difficulties and losses, the planet exploration programs went on for more than 50 years without interruption. Thanks to the extraordinary technological development, the scientists widened the limits of space exploration far beyond the orbits surrounding the Earth, sending dozens of probes to the other planets and satellites of the Solar System. Launched in 1977, after an 18-bilion-chilometer journey that lasted 36 years, Voyager 1 was the first space ship to exit the limit of our Solar System. Thanks to a rare and favorable planetary alignment, the two Voyager ships reached all the external planets, from Mars to Neptune, discovering new satellites and providing us extraordinary images of unexplored worlds.
Each one of the Voyagers contains a “Golden Disk,” a sort of “cosmic postcard” containing information about the humans, about the cultural and scientific heritage of our planet, aimed at providing data about us, in the unlikely event extraterrestrial creatures come in touch with one of the space ships. Beyond the low possibilities that something like this may happen, these disks represent an emblematic characteristic of the experience of exploration: the perpetual need to find something or someone. We don’t explore just to find, but also to be found.
The exhibit will bring the visitors onto the Voyager, in an ideal interplanetary trip that starts from the Earth and reaches the extreme limits of the Solar System. Through historic images, reproduction of space probes, videos and multimedia material, the visitors will come in touch with the extraordinary technical challenges of these explorations, and will be involved in the magnificent journeys of the recent missions.
PRESENTATION (Conference Room /4th floor) January 16, 5:15 pm with Maria Elena MONZANI, Astrophysicist, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
GUIDED TOURS Friday: 8:15pm Saturday: 10:30 am | 12 pm | 1:30 pm | 3 pm | 6 pm | 7:15 pm | 8:15 pm Sunday: 10:15 am | 12 pm | 1:30 pm | 3 pm | 4:3 0pm | 5:45 pm | 6:45 pm | 8 pm
25 PROGRAM | EXHIBITS | OUR SUNDAY VISITOR EXHIBIT HALL /second floor
Little World. Minimal Stuff Stories of extraordinary ordinary people told by Giovannino Guareschi, novelist, and Enzo Jannacci, songwriter
Could it be that our being human, our very humanity on its own, so restless and uncomfortable with itself, is the “key” to navigating the stormy seas of life? This possibility can be discovered in front of people who do not fit the norms, perhaps even marginalized, but nonetheless people that are true and authentic. People capable of revealing the greatness that we all carry within ourselves, capable of revealing to each one of us our own naked “I.”
Guareschi, the Italian writer whose works have been translated more than any other Italian writer, and Jannacci, the ingenious Milanese poet and songwriter, have been able to express this great human capacity through their characters. In “little world stories,” the characters Don Camillo and Peppone are at the same time friends and adversaries, capable of arguing constantly about their differences yet without ever allowing their differences to prevail over the good of the community at large.
“Giobà” is a character that could have success and money, but he does not care about them. For him what counts is being fulfilled by the way he works. The figure of the farmer “Canalaccio,” who after having falling victim to great injustices, says of his torturer: “I have pity for his damn flesh.”
Jannacci’s character, the homeless man with the sneakers who wanders the streets talking to himself, does not need to feel “normal” in order to realize his importance in encountering love. Or, a character like “Vincenzina” who, standing in front of the factory, in front of the daily fatigue that wears her out, is certain because of the “smell of cleanliness” that she will never be just a number in a production line.
Or, the farmer in “I saw a king” who unmasks and mocks the abusive wrong doing of any power.
Jannacci and Guareschi, with their ironic and free gaze, partner with every small facet of human nature. They have created characters who never seek recognition, hardly giving in to self-interest, comfort, or trends. Rather, they follow something
26 PROGRAM | EXHIBITS | OUR SUNDAY VISITOR EXHIBIT HALL /second floor that is dictated by their heart, their consciousness. Irony without cynicism, folk soul without demagogy, absolutely no homologation to any trend of the moment.
Guareschi, the journalist writer, and Jannacci, the doctor/song writer: so different from each other, yet so close to one another.
Enzo Jannacci was an Italian singer-songwriter, actor, stand-up comedian, and medical doctor. He is regarded as a master of musical art and cabaret, as well as one of the founders of Italian rock and roll music.
Giovannino Guareschi was an Italian novelist, journalist, cartoonist, and humorist whose most famous creation is Don Camillo. He is the most translated Italian author in the world.
A special thanks for the following materials utilized in the exhibit:
–– “La mia gente. Enzo Jannacci, canzoni a colori,” exhibit curated by Davide Barzi and Sandro Paté, promoted by Caritas Ambrosiana, the street paper Scarp de’ tenis (member of the International Network of Street Papers) and WOW-Museo del Fumetto –– Series “Don Camillo a fumetti”, published by Renoir Comics –– Video clips of Enzo Jannacci, provided by Rai Direzione Teche –– Unpublished video clip of Guareschi, provided by Archivio Guareschi
Logo design by Maurizio Milani (Milani Design, Milan), containing Giovannino Guareschi’s self-portrait and “Omaggio a Enzo Jannacci” by Bruno Bozzetto
PRESENTATION (Conference Room /4th floor) January 17, 10:15 am with Giorgio VITTADINI, Professor of Statistics, State University of Milan, Italy
GUIDED TOURS Friday: 8:15pm Saturday: 10 am | 11:30 am | 1 pm | 2:30 pm | 4:45 pm | 6:15 pm | 7:15 pm | 8:15 pm Sunday: 12 pm | 1:30 pm | 3 pm | 4:30 pm | 5:45 pm | 6:45 pm | 8 pm
27 SPEAKERS
Nancy Albin Co-founder of Los Angeles Habilitation House (LAHH). Currently, Ms. Nancy Albin is providing vision, management, and leadership in the major corporate economic strategies, objectives, and policies for LAHH, overseeing accounting, budgeting, tax, treasury, administrative functions, and automation efforts. With over nine years of combined experience in corporate balance sheet audits with a Big 4 Accounting Firm and financial budgeting, forecasting, and analysis for a Fortune 500 Company that is a leader in family entertainment, Nancy is excited to bring her talents and experience to LAHH and focus all of her energies on fulfilling its mission. Habitat for Humanity, Little Sisters of the Poor, and Rural Grace Food Pantry are organizations that Nancy supports. Jackie Aldrette Jackie Aldrette is the Managing Director for AVSI-USA, the liaison office for AVSI Foundation in the United States. Jackie also serves as the Focal Point for USG Relations for the entire AVSI network, including local partners present in 30 countries around the world. Jackie has served as New Business Program Manager for AVSI-USA for the past 10 years, supporting AVSI’s efforts to diversify funding sources and build a foundation of strategic partnerships with USG donor agencies, international financial institutions, foundations, individuals and universities. Rose Marie Beebe Rose Marie Beebe is Professor of Spanish Literature and Robert Senkewicz is Professor of History at Santa Clara University. They are the translators, editors, and annotators of Testimonios: Early California through the Eyes of Women: 1815-1848 (2006). They are the co-editors of Lands of Promise and Despair: Chronicles of Early California, 1535-1846 (2001) as well as the translators, editors, and annotators of The History of Alta California by Antonio María Osio (1996), which received the Norman Neuerburg Award from the Historical Society of Southern California. They also jointly edited Guide to the Manuscripts Concerning Baja California in the Collections of The Bancroft Library (2002). Their latest volume is Junípero Serra: California, Indians, and the Transformation of a Missionary (University of Oklahoma Press, 2015). They have received numerous teaching and scholarship awards at Santa Clara University. They have also received awards from The Bancroft Library, the Historical Society of Southern California, the California Mission Studies Association, and the California Council for the Promotion of History.
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Lindsay Blakely Lindsay Blakely is a senior editor at Inc., based in Los Angeles. Previously she was a senior editor at CBS Interactive and before that she was a reporter for Business 2.0 magazine.
Chris Blattman Chris Blattman is Associate Professor of Political Science & International Affairs at Columbia University. He studies why some people and societies are poor, violent and unequal, and what (if anything) aid or governments can do about it. He works principally in sub-Saharan Africa, especially Liberia, Uganda, and Ethiopia.
Dr. Blattman is a research fellow with the NBER, CEPR, BREAD, J-PAL, and CGD. He leads the Peace & Recovery program at Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA), as well as the Politics, Institutions and Conflict initiative at Columbia University’s Center for Development Economics and Policy (CDEP).
Dr. Blattman was previously on faculty at Yale University, and holds a PhD in Economics from the University of California at Berkeley and a Master’s in Public Administration and International Development (MPA/ID) from the Harvard Kennedy School. He blogs about research and international development on his personal website (chrisblattman.com) and at The Washington Post’s “Monkey Cage” blog.
Father Peter John Cameron, O.P. Father Peter John Cameron, O.P. was ordained a Dominican priest in 1986. In addition to his work as Editor-in-Chief of Magnificat, he is the chairman of the department of homiletics at St. Joseph’s Seminary, Dunwoodie, New York, and the artistic director of Blackfriars Repertory Theatre in New York City. He is the author of ten books. The most recent is entitled Prayers for the Moment (Magnificat, 2015).
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Julián Carrón Called by Father Giussani to share in the responsibility of the leadership of the Movement, Father Julián Carrón has been President of the Fraternity of Communion and Liberation since March 19, 2005, and Ecclesiastical Assistant to the Memores Domini since May 13, 2005.
Julián Carrón was born in 1950 in Navaconcejo (Cáceres, Spain). While he was still very young, he entered Madrid’s Conciliar Seminary, where he completed his secondary and theological studies. He was ordained a priest in 1975, and the following year he obtained a degree in Theology, specializing in Sacred Scripture at the Comillas Pontifical University. He is lecturer at the Complutense University of Madrid. He was appointed Elève Titulaire at the École Biblique et Archéologique Française in Jerusalem, where he worked under the direction of M.-É. Boismard. He spent one year researching at the Catholic University of America (Washington, DC), and is professor at the Theological College of Madrid’s Conciliar Seminary.
He is head of the Minor Seminary, professor of Religion, and in charge of pastoral care at the Colegio Arzobispal de la Inmaculada y San Dámaso (Madrid), of which he was rector from 1987 to 1994. He obtained a doctorate in Theology from the Facultad de Teología del Norte de España, in Burgos, in 1984. He is lecturer at the San Dámaso Institute of Theology, Religious Science, and Catechetics and ordinary professor of New Testament at the San Dámaso Faculty of Theology in Madrid, where he has taught “Introduction to Sacred Scripture,” “The Pauline Corpus and Acts of the Apostles,” and “Origins of Christianity.” He is also a member of the editorial committee of Studia Semitica Novi Testamenti. He is the Director of Madrid’s San Justino Institute of Classical and Eastern Philology. During the 1990s, he gave numerous lectures on the historicity of the Gospels in Madrid, Milan, Turin, Bologna, Rome, Florence, and Rimini, and lessons at New York University, the Catholic University of America, the John Paul II Institute, and the University of San Francisco, on the theme “In Search of Certainty about the Historic Value of the Gospels.” In addition to numerous articles in various journals, he published El Mesías manifestado. Tradición Literaria y transfondo judío de Hch 3, 19-26 (Studia Semitica Novi Testamenti 2, Madrid 1993).
He has served as director of the Spanish edition of the international Catholic journal Communio and the journal Estudios Bíblicos, as well as the Library of the San Dámaso Faculty of Theology in Madrid and the Institute of Religious Sciences related to the same faculty.
In September 2004 he moved to Milan, called by Father Giussani, the founder of the ecclesial movement Communion and Liberation, to share with him in the responsibility of the leadership of the whole Movement.
Since the academic year 2004-2005, he has been professor of Introduction to Theology at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Milan. 30 SPEAKERS
On March 19, 2005, the Central Diakonia of the Fraternity of CL appointed him President of the Fraternity of Communion and Liberation, as the successor of Father Giussani, who passed away on February 22, 2005. On May 13, 2005, the Pontifical Council for the Laity appointed him Ecclesiastical Assistant to the Association Memores Domini.
On August 26, 2005, he was received for the first time in a private audience by Pope Benedict XVI at Castel Gandolfo, in his capacity as the President of the Fraternity of CL.
In October 2005, he participated in the Synod on “The Eucharist: Source and Summit of the Life and Mission of the Church” as a Synodal Father appointed by the Pope.
On June 3, 2006, he spoke in St. Peter’s Square during Pope Benedict XVI’s meeting with the ecclesial movements.
On March 24, 2007, he led CL’s international pilgrimage to St. Peter’s Square for the Audience granted by the Holy Father on the occasion of the 25th Anniversary of the Pontifical Recognition of the Fraternity of Communion and Liberation.
On March 8, 2008, having reached the end of his mandate, the Central Diakonia of the Fraternity of CL reconfirmed his appointment as President of the Fraternity for the following six years.
In April 2008, he was appointed by Benedict XVI as Consultor of the Pontifical Council for the Laity.
In October 2008, he participated in the Synod on “The Word of God in the Life and Mission of the Church” as a Synodal Father appointed by the Pope.
From 2005 to 2009 he was director of the series “Books of the Christian Spirit” published by Rizzoli, and from 2005 to 2010, of the “Spirto Gentil” music series, both founded by Father Giussani.
In November 2010, he spoke at the Theological Conference of the Russian Orthodox Church in Moscow entitled “Life in Christ: Christian Morality, Church Ascetic Tradition, and Challenges of the Modern Age,” and, also in November 2010, at the 12th Congress on Catholics and Public Life organized by the University Foundation “San Pablo Ceu” in Madrid entitled “Rooted in Christ: Strengthened in Faith and in Mission.”
On May 19, 2011, Benedict XVI appointed him Consultor of the new Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization.
On February 22, 2012, he sent the request for the opening of the cause of beatification and canonization of Father Giussani to the Archbishop of Milan, Cardinal Angelo Scola.
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On May 12, 2012, the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC bestowed an honorary degree in Sacred Theology on him, “For his distinguished service in the theology field, especially in Sacred Scripture, and as leader of an international ecclesial movement recognized by the Pope.”
In October 2012, he participated in the Synod on “The New Evangelization for the Transmission of the Christian Faith” as a Synodal Father appointed by the Pope.
On October 11, 2013, Fr. Julián Carrón was received in private audience with Pope Francis. On October 16, Fr. Julián writes a letter to the Fraternity and to the entire Movement of Communion and Liberation.
On March 29, 2014, at the end of his term, Fr. Julián Carrón was re-elected by the Diakonia as the President of the Fraternity of CL for the next six years.
On March 7, 2015, he led CL’s international pilgrimage to St. Peter’s Square for the Audience granted by Pope Francis on the occasion of the 10th Anniversary of the death of the Servant of God Luigi Giussani.
His book, La bellezza disarmata (The Unarmed Beuaty) was published by Rizzoli in September 2015.
Paolo Carozza Paolo Carozza is the director of the Kellogg Institute for International Studies and professor of law and concurrent professor of political science at the University of Notre Dame. His research centers on comparative constitutional law, human rights law, the role of law in development, and international law. Among his recent publications is “Human Rights, Human Dignity, and Human Experience,” in Understanding Human Dignity, (Christopher McCrudden, ed., Oxford University Press, 2013). A member of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (2006–10), Carozza received the Order of Merit of Bernardo O’Higgins, Chile’s highest state honor awarded to foreign citizens, in recognition of his service to the Inter-American system. He holds a JD from Harvard Law School.
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Abigail Holtz Abigail Holtz studied English literature and Italian language at the University of Maryland. Immediately after graduation, she began an internship with AVSIteaching English at the Cardinal Otunga High school in Nairobi, Kenya. After the internship was completed, she continued teaching, but this time at the K-12 school Colegio International Kolbe, in Madrid, Spain. After a year she returned to the D.C. area to pursue a master’s in Education and has been teaching full time at a local public high school for the past three years. Ms. Holtz has also seen AVSI’s activities in Quito, Ecuador where her sister, Sarah Holtz, works.
Thomas D. Jones Thomas D. Jones, PhD, is a scientist, author, pilot, and veteran NASA astronaut. In more than eleven years with NASA, he flew on four space shuttle missions to Earth orbit. On his last flight, Dr. Jones led three spacewalks to install the centerpiece of the International Space Station, the American Destiny laboratory. He has spent fifty-three days working and living in space.
After graduation from the Air Force Academy, Dr. Jones piloted B-52D strategic bombers, earned a doctorate in planetary sciences from the University of Arizona, studied asteroids for NASA, engineered intelligence- gathering systems for the CIA, and helped NASA develop advanced mission concepts to explore the solar system.
Dr. Jones is the author of three recent space and aviation books: Planetology, (written with Ellen Stofan), Hell Hawks! The Untold Story of the American Fliers Who Savaged Hitler’s Wehrmacht (with Robert F. Dorr), and Sky Walking: An Astronaut’s Memoir. The Wall Street Journal named Sky Walking one if its “Five Best” books on space. He writes frequently for Air & Space Smithsonian, Aerospace America, Popular Mechanics, and American Heritage magazines.
Dr. Jones’ awards include the NASA Distinguished Service Medal, four NASA Space Flight Medals, the NASA Exceptional Service award, the NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal, the NASA Exceptional Public Service award, Phi Beta Kappa, the Air Force Commendation Medal, and Eagle Scout. The Main Belt asteroid 1082TomJones is named in his honor.
Dr. Jones served on the NASA Advisory Council, and is a board member of the Association of Space Explorers and the Astronauts Memorial Foundation. As a senior research scientist at the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition,
33 SPEAKERS he focuses on the future direction of human space exploration, uses of asteroid and space resources, and planetary defense. He appears frequently on TV and radio with expert commentary on science and space flight.
Arrangements for the appearance of Dr. Tom Jones made through HarperCollins Speakers Bureau, New York, NY.
Joakim Koech Joakim Koech is the principal of Cardinal Maurice Otunga High School in Nairobi, Kenya. Founded in 2005 and further developed with the help of the Association of Volunteers in International Service (AVSI), the school aims to develop students’ awareness of themselves as human beings, with a particular focus on needy students who would not otherwise have access to schooling. Koech has spent 16 years as a teacher, coach, and deputy principal. The former chair of the Cardinal Otunga Charitable Trust and the co-editor of Reality and Education, he has been involved with AVSI capacity building for secondary school teachers and principals. He holds a Master’s in Education in curriculum studies from the University of Nairobi.
Priscilla La Porte Ms. La Porte is a Guidance Counselor at a high school committed to educating and transforming students into young women of competence, compassion, and commitment in a Catholic Felician-Franciscan tradition of leadership and service. She received a BS in Human Development and Family Studies from the University of Delaware, and an MA in Counseling from Montclair State University.
Maurizio Maniscalco President of New York Encounter. Mr. Maurizio (Riro) Maniscalco has been playing music and writing songs since the age of 10, while studying first and then working in human resources. Though born and raised in Italy, Mr. Maniscalco has been living in New York City with his family since 1994. A self-taught guitarist and percussionist, and a skilled singer and talented songwriter, Mr. Maniscalco throughout the years has developed a deep love for the blues— a music he knows thoroughly and performs in a very passionate way. He has recorded 3 albums with the Bay Ridge Band and one – Blues and Mercy – with his friend Jonathan Fields. He is also one of the authors of Educating through Music. 34 SPEAKERS
Msgr. Ronald Marino Msgr. Ronald Marino, Episcopal Vicar for Migrant and Ethnic Apostolates of the Diocese of Brooklyn, NY has over 25 years of experience working for immigrants in the Catholic Migration Office of the Brooklyn Diocese of which he served as Director for 17 years. He was ordained a priest in 1973 after having obtained his Bachelor of Arts degree from Cathedral College in Douglaston, NY and a Master of Divinity Degree from Immaculate Conception Seminary in Huntington, NY. He continued his post-graduate studies and obtained a Master’s of Science in Education (Counseling) from St. John’s University in NY. In 1994, he founded Resources, Inc. a nationally recognized job opportunity program for immigrants. He is frequently called upon to speak on immigrant pastoral issues both nationally and internationally.
Maria Elena Monzani Maria Elena Monzani received her PhD from University of Milano and University of Paris 7, working on Solar Neutrinos. She was a Postdoctoral Research Scientist at Columbia University in New York, before moving to the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in 2007. Her research field is astroparticle physics, which focuses on issues at the intersection between particle physics and astrophysics/cosmology. Her main research interest involves the search for Dark Matter, which makes up for most of the mass of the Universe but has an unknown origin and composition. As a member of the LUX-Zeplin collaboration, she is building a new multi-ton Dark Matter detector to be installed in the former Homestake mine in South Dakota. She also leads the Science Operations Team for the Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope. Dr. Monzani is very passionate about science outreach and education: she has collaborated on several science exhibits with the Euresis association and most recently she was the instructor for the “Nature of the Universe” course at Stanford University.
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Archbishop Amel Nona Archbishop Amel Nona was born November 1, 1967 in Aqlosh – Nineveh, Iraq. He was ordained a priest on January 11, 1991 in Baghdad. From 2000 to 2005 he studied in Rome, and from 2005 to 2010 he served as a parish priest in Alqosh. On January 8, 2010, he was ordained a bishop. He served as Archbishop of the Mosul Chaldean archeparchy (archdiocese) from 2010 to 2014. On March 7, 2015, he was appointed the Bishop of St. Thomas Chaldean eparchy (diocese) of Australia & New Zealand.
Archbishop Nona received his PhD in Theological Anthropology in 2005 from the Pontifical Lateran University, Rome. He is the author of many books, including: The Word of God in the Story of People (2007), 100 Questions About Love (2008), Meditations on Liturgical Prayer of Chaldean Rite (2011), Via Crucis (2012), and Family and Society (2013).
Seán Cardinal Patrick O’Malley His Eminence Seán Cardinal Patrick O’Malley, O.F.M. Cap., was born June 29, 1944 in Lakewood, Ohio, and was raised in Western Pennsylvania, where he entered a Franciscan seminary. At 21, he was professed into the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin and at 26 he was ordained a Catholic priest. After earning a master’s degree in religious education and a PhD in Spanish and Portuguese literature from the Catholic University of America, he taught at Catholic University and founded Centro Católico Hispano (Hispanic Catholic Center) in Washington, DC, an organization which provided educational, medical and legal help to immigrants. Since his ordination to the episcopacy on August 2, 1984, he has served as the Bishop of the dioceses of St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands; Fall River, Massachusetts; and Palm Beach, Florida. Pope John Paul II appointed him Archbishop of Boston in July 2003. Pope Benedict XVI named him a Cardinal in 2006.
Salvatore Petrosino Salvatore Petrosino, director and writer, received his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Film from the School of Visual Arts (1984).
Petrosino has been involved in filmmaking for over thirty years. He has written directed, produced and edited: independent shorts, documentaries, commercials, industrials, music videos and has written two feature-length screenplays (Crossroads, Seasonal Passages) and various shorts. His expertise
36 SPEAKERS includes writing, directing and development at all stages of pre-production, production and post-production.
Mr. Petrosino has dedicated twenty-five years to education as Director of Film and Animation at the School of Visual Arts. There he helped to create and restructure the film and animation program, including revising curriculum, restructuring the program, and creating state-of-the-art facilities in helping to establish SVA as one of the leading film schools in the world. He has initiated two international studies-abroad programs, one in Italy and the other in France, and has created many master workshops/lectures with some of the leading filmmakers in cinema today, including: Gordon Willis, Bryan Singer, Anastos Michos, Chris Newman, Alan Heim, Patrizia Von Brandenstein, Benoit Jacquot, Claire Denis to name a few. His documentary filmThey Used to Call it South Brooklyn exposed a dark side of gentrification in Brooklyn.
Mr. Petrosino lives and works in New York City and continues as not only the Director of Film and Animation, but teaches filmmaking classes at the School of Visual Arts in New York to full-time day, continuing education and pre-college students. He recently wrote and directed a short film adapted from his feature screenplay, Crossroads which had its New York premier in November and is currently playing festivals.
Giulio Piscitelli Giulio Piscitelli (b. 1981, Napoli) earned a degree in Communication Studies, approached photography in 2008, and after graduation began working with Italian and foreign news agencies (AFP, Controlucepix). He collaborated with the historical photo archive Parisio of Naples, as post producer of images and archivist until 2010.
Some of his works have been exhibited in spaces such as Villa Pignatelli (Naples), University of Catanzaro (Italy), International Festival of Journalism in Perugia, Angkor Photo Festival, Gallery of Brera (Milan); Visa Pour L’Image Festival (France), Hannover photo festival; La Maternitè d’Elne (France); Night of photography (CH). In 2012 he won a grant from the Magnum Foundation Emergency Fund for the continuation of his photographic project “From There to Here,” focused on immigration in Italy, represented as the long arm of Europe in the Mediterranean. This project expanded in the last four years to include more than 12 countries.
In addition to this project on immigration, he also has carried out photographic works in Syria, Afghanistan, Kosovo, Sudan, Egypt, Kenya, Libya, Tunisia and Ukraine. His reports were published by national and international newspapers and magazines such as: Internazionale, New York Times, Espresso, Stern, Io donna, Newsweek, Vanity Fair, Time, La Stampa, Vrji and others.
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Piscitelli currently lives in Naples and his work is represented by Contrasto agency. To see some of his work, visit giuliopiscitelli.viewbook.com.
Fr. Pierbattista Pizzaballa, OFM Fr. Pierbattista Pizzaballa, OFM was appointed Custos of the Holy Land for the first time in May of 2004, for a period of six years, and reconfirmed by the Minister General of the Order of Friars Minor in May of 2010 for another three-year term.
Born on April 21, 1965, in Cologno al Serio in the diocese and province of Bergamo, he began formation with the friars of the province of Emilia Romagna, to which he still juridically belongs. He was ordained a priest on September 15, 1990, and entered into effective service of the Custody of the Holy Land in 1999. Upon completion of philosophical and theological studies, he received a bachelor’s degree in theology on June 19, 1990, from the Pontifical University Antonianum in Rome. He completed his studies of specialization at the Studium Biblicum Franciscanum in Jerusalem, obtaining his license in biblical theology on June 21, 1993, and afterward received his master’s degree from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He was a professor of modern Hebrew at the Franciscan Faculty of Biblical and Archeological Sciences in Jerusalem, and has done pastoral work with the Hebrew-speaking faithful for the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem.
Jeffrey D. Sachs Jeffrey D. Sachs is the Director of The Earth Institute, Quetelet Professor of Sustainable Development, and Professor of Health Policy and Management at Columbia University. He is Special Advisor to United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on the Millennium Development Goals, having held the same position under former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. He is Director of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network. He is co-founder and Chief Strategist of Millennium Promise Alliance, and is director of the Millennium Villages Project. Sachs is also one of the Secretary- General’s MDG Advocates, and a Commissioner of the ITU/UNESCO Broadband Commission for Development. He has authored three New York Times bestsellers in the past seven years: The End of Poverty (2005), Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet (2008), and The Price of Civilization (2011). His most recent books are To Move the World: JFK’s Quest for Peace (2013) and The Age of Sustainable Development (2015).
Professor Sachs is widely considered to be one of the world’s leading experts on economic development and the fight against poverty. His work on ending poverty,
38 SPEAKERS promoting economic growth, fighting hunger and disease, and promoting sustainable environmental practices, has taken him to more than 125 countries with more than 90 percent of the world’s population. For more than a quarter century he has advised dozens of heads of state and governments on economic strategy, in the Americas, Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East.
Sachs is the recipient of many awards and honors, including membership in the Institute of Medicine, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Harvard Society of Fellows, and the Fellows of the World Econometric Society. He has received more than 20 honorary degrees, and many awards and honors around the world. Professor Sachs is also a frequent contributor to major publications such as the Financial Times of London, the International Herald Tribune, Scientific American, and Time magazine.
Prior to joining Columbia, Sachs spent over twenty years at Harvard University, most recently as Director of the Center for International Development and the Galen L. Stone Professor of International Trade. A native of Detroit, Michigan, Sachs received his BA, MA, and PhD degrees at Harvard.
Stephen Sanchez Stephen Sanchez is originally from El Paso, TX, and currently lives with his wife in Brooklyn. He graduated from the University of Notre Dame with a major in Philosophy and Government and is currently pursuing a master’s in Educational Leadership at Fordham University. He was a teacher and Pastoral Youth Director for thirteen years and more recently served as the Founding Director of ComUnidad Juan Diego, an educational, pastoral, and social services initiative for Latin American immigrants in the Archdiocese of New York. He is currently a first year principal at Our Lady of Mount Carmel - St. Benedicta Catholic School on Staten Island.
Joshua Stancil Joshua Stancil is currently a candidate for a BA degree in English at Arizona State University. His writings have appeared in Magnificatand Traces, and most recently he contributed to the Magnificat Year of Mercy Companion (Ignatius Press).
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Robert Senkewicz Robert Senkewicz is Professor of History at Santa Clara University and Rose Marie Beebe is Professor of Spanish Literature. They are the translators, editors, and annotators of Testimonios: Early California through the Eyes of Women: 1815-1848 (2006). They are the co-editors of Lands of Promise and Despair: Chronicles of Early California, 1535-1846 (2001) as well as the translators, editors, and annotators of The History of Alta California by Antonio María Osio (1996), which received the Norman Neuerburg Award from the Historical Society of Southern California. They also jointly edited Guide to the Manuscripts Concerning Baja California in the Collections of The Bancroft Library (2002). Their latest volume is Junípero Serra: California, Indians, and the Transformation of a Missionary (University of Oklahoma Press, 2015). They have received numerous teaching and scholarship awards at Santa Clara University. They have also received awards from The Bancroft Library, the Historical Society of Southern California, the California Mission Studies Association, and the California Council for the Promotion of History.
Valerie Smaldone Multiple award-winning broadcaster Valerie Smaldone is an actress, voice-over artist and content provider, as well as a private talent coach and instructor at School of Visual Arts. She can be heard on 1010WINS as their imaging voice, hosting the syndicated radio show, America Weekend, or narrating the crime series, Fatal Encounters on Investigation Discovery. As a seasoned interviewer, Valerie has interviewed hundreds of superstars, entrepreneurs and authors. Recently, Valerie appeared on an episode of Blue Bloods on CBS, and was a guest reporter on WABC-TV, introducing performers at the NYC Columbus Day Parade. She produces content for MY9TV and writes a theatre column for The Three Tomatoes.
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Giorgio Vittadini Giorgio Vittadini is the Founder and President of the Foundation for Subsidiarity (Fondazione per la Sussidiarietà), in Milan, Italy, which provides educational and training programs, conducts research projects, editorial and publishing activities, conferences and seminars, and it is also the editor of the online newspaper ilsussidiario.net.
He is a Professor of Methodological Statistics in the Statistical Department at the University of Milan Bicocca. The principal areas of Dr. Vittadini’s statistical work are: Multivariate Analysis, Structural and Latent Variables Models, Evaluation Problems in the field of Public Utility Services (with particular reference to education and health) and Human Capital Estimation.
From 1997 to 2005, he launched and directed the Interuniversity Research Center for Public Utility Services (C.R.I.S.P.).
He is a member of the Italian Society of Statistics, the American Statistical Association and the International Statistical Institute. His scholarly works have been published in national and international scientific journals. Dr. Vittadini has published and edited several books, published in journals and in the main Italian newspapers on social and economic themes, particularly regarding subsidiarity, human capital, welfare, and non-profit organizations.
He is a member of the board of The Meeting for Friendship Among Peoples (Meeting per l’Amicizia tra i Popoli), an annual, week-long cultural festival held each August in Rimini, Italy, that sees 1 million visitors, and has been called one of the most significant cultural events in Europe.
He is a member of the Scientific Committee of the Politecnico Foundation in Milan and a member of the advisory board of the Crossroads Cultural Center (in USA).
In 2005, the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs awarded Giorgio Vittadini with the Gold Medal Award for the Promotion of Italian Culture Abroad.
He founded Companions in Work (Compagnia delle Opere) an international association of 30,000 businesses inspired by the Social Doctrine of the Catholic Church, and served as its President until 2003.
Giorgio Vittadini was born in Milan, Italy on February 20, 1956. In 1979, he graduated with honours in Economics from the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Milan, Italy, and was the 10th recipient of the Gemelli Award for the best graduate of the year. In 1986 he completed his doctoral research in Methodological Statistics at the University of Trento.
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Rebecca Vitz Cherico Rebecca Vitz Cherico grew up in New York City. She graduated from Yale University in 1993 with a BA in Italian and later did her doctorate in Spanish literature at New York University, where her dissertation focused on the intersection of evolutionary theory and Spanish literature. Since 2004 she has taught a “Great Books”- style course at Villanova University, as well as Spanish and Italian. Rebecca edited Atheist to Catholic: Stories of Conversion; she contributed a chapter on the priestly abuse crisis to the volume Breaking Through: Catholic Women Speak for Themselves; and she hosted a radio program on conversion for Radio Maria. This past fall, she presented at the World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia. Rebecca and her husband, Colin, have lived in the greater Philadelphia area since 2002. They have five children.
John Waters John Waters, newspaper columnist, author, playwright and songwriter, was born in Castlerea, Co Roscommon, in the West of Ireland in 1955. He pursued a variety of occupations after leaving school, including railway clerk, showband roadie, pirate radio manager, petrol pump attendant and mailcar driver. He began part-time work as a journalist in 1981, with Hot Press, Ireland’s leading rock ‘n’ roll periodical, becoming a full-time journalist with the paper in 1984, when he moved to Dublin.
As a journalist, magazine editor and columnist, he has specialised in raising unpopular issues of public importance, including the repression of Famine memories in the Irish psyche and culture, and the denial of rights to fathers. His books include Jiving at the Crossroads (Blackstaff,1991); Race of Angels – Ireland and the Genesis of U2 (4th Estate/Blackstaff,1994); Every Day Like Sunday? (Poolbeg, 1995); An Intelligent Person’s Guide to Modern Ireland (Duckworth 1997); The Politburo Has Decided That You Are Unwell (Liffey Press, 2004); Lapsed Agnostic (Continuum, 2007); Beyond Consolation – On How We Became Too Clever For God ... And Our Own Good (Continuum, 2010); Feckers – 50 People Who Fecked Up Ireland (Constable and Robinson, 2010) and Was It For This? – Why Ireland Lost the Plot (TransWorld, 2012). He has written plays for radio and the stage, including Long Black Coat (1994), Holy Secrets (BBC, 1996), Easter Dues (1998), and Adverse Possession (BBC, 1998). He has been a columnist with the Irish Times, Ireland’s leading quality daily broadsheet, since 1990 and currently also writes columns for The Irish Mail on Sunday, The Irish Catholic, and Tracce/Traces, the international magazine of the Catholic movement Communion and Liberation.
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Andreas Widmer Andreas Widmer is Director of Entrepreneurship Programs at The Catholic University of America and President of The Carpenter’s Fund. He was previously the co-founder of SEVEN Fund, a philanthropic organization run by entrepreneurs who invested in original research, books, and films to further enterprise solutions to poverty.
He is the author of The Pope & The CEO: Pope John Paul II’s Lessons to a Young Swiss Guard, a book exploring leadership lessons that Widmer learned serving as a Swiss Guard protecting Pope John Paul II and refined during his career as a successful business executive.
He is a frequent speaker around the world on issues related to business ethics, entrepreneurship, business leadership, productivity, and the challenges of executive management. Andreas works closely with top entrepreneurs, investors, and faith leaders around the world to foster enterprise solutions to poverty and promote virtuous business practices. He has developed entrepreneurial initiatives at the intersection of business and faith such as the Catholic Mental Models Project, a research effort through his social science research firm GSPEL LLC.
Andreas is the Chairman of the board of advisors of WQOM, Bostons’ Catholic Radio station, a Research Fellow in Entrepreneurship at the Acton Institute and an advisor to the Zermatt Summit, an annual business leadership event that strives to humanize globalization. He also serves as an advisor to Transforming Business, a research and development project at the University of Cambridge. He currently serves on the advisory boards of the Templeton Foundation, Global Adaptation Institute, Spring Hill Equity Partners, Karisimbi Business Partners, and Catholics Come Home. He is on the board of directors at the New Paradigm Research Fund, Virtual Research Associates and the World Youth Alliance.
Christian Wiman Christian Wiman is the author, editor, or translator of eight books. His most recent book is My Bright Abyss: Meditation of a Modern Believer (FSG, 2013), which the New Republic called “an apologia and a prayer, an invitation and a fellow traveler for any who suffer and all who believe.” His most recent book of poems, Every Riven Thing (FSG, 2010), won the Ambassador Book Award and was listed as one of the ten best books of the year by the New Yorker. Of his work as a whole, Marilynne Robinson writes, “His poetry and scholarship have a purifying urgency that is rare in this world. This puts him at the very source of theology, and enables him to say new things in
43 SPEAKERS timeless language, so that the reader’s surprise and assent are one and the same.” Mr. Wiman has been a Jones Lecturer in Poetry at Stanford and a visiting assistant professor of English at Northwestern, and for three years he served as Visiting Scholar at Lynchburg College in Virginia. From 2003 until 2013 he was the editor of Poetry magazine, the premiere magazine for poetry in the English-speaking world. During that time the magazine’s circulation tripled, and it garnered two National Magazine Awards from the American Society of Magazine Editors. For the magazine’s centennial year, Mr. Wiman edited, with Don Share, The Open Door: One Hundred Poems, One Hundred Years of Poetry Magazine (University of Chicago Press, 2012). Mr. Wiman has written for the New Yorker, the New York Times Book Review, the Atlantic Monthly, and numerous other publications. He is a former Guggenheim Fellow and holds an honorary doctorate of humane letters from North Central College. His particular interests include modern poetry, the language of faith, “accidental” theology (that is, theology conducted by unexpected means), and what it means to be a Christian intellectual in a secular culture.
Education: B. A., English Literature, Washington and Lee University
Gregory Wolfe Writer, teacher, publisher, and editor, Greg Wolfe has been called “one of the most incisive and persuasive voices of our generation” (Ron Hansen). Both as a thinker and institution-builder, Wolfe has been a pioneer in the resurgence of interest in the relationship between art and religion—a resurgence that has had widespread impact both on religious communities and the public square. As an advocate for and exemplar of the tradition of Christian Humanism, Wolfe has established a reputation as an independent, non-ideological thinker—part gadfly, part peacemaker.
In 1989, Wolfe founded Image, which Annie Dillard has called “one of the best journals on the planet.” Now one of America’s top literary quarterlies, Image is a unique forum for the best writing and artwork that is informed by—or grapples with— religious faith. Material first published in Image has appeared inHarper’s, Utne Reader, and the Wilson Quarterly as well as the Pushcart Prize anthology, Best American Essays, Best American Poetry, Best American Spiritual Writing, O. Henry Prize Stories, The Art of the Essay, New Stories from the South, and Best American Movie Writing. Image has also been nominated by Utne Reader for an Alternative Press Award for Spiritual Coverage. Recent, Image’s Glen Workshop was featured on the public television program Religion and Ethics Newsweekly.
Since 2000, Wolfe has served as Writer in Residence at Seattle Pacific University, where he teaches English literature and creative writing. He is also the founder and director of the Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing at SPU, the first program of its kind to integrate a studio writing degree with intensive reflection upon the literary and aesthetic riches of the Judeo-Christian tradition.
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In 2013, Greg Wolfe launched his own literary imprint, Slant, through the Wipf & Stock publishing company. Two novels have been published to date, with three more due in 2014.
Wolfe has published over 200 essays, reviews, and articles in numerous journals, including Wall Street Journal, Commonweal, and First Things. His essays have been anthologized in collections such as The Best Christian Writing and The Best Catholic Writing.
Among his books are Beauty Will Save the World: Recovering the Human in an Ideological Age (ISI Books, 2011), Intruding Upon the Timeless: Meditations on Art, Faith, and Mystery (Square Halo, 2003), Malcolm Muggeridge: A Biography (Eerdmans, 1997) and Sacred Passion: The Art of William Schickel (University of Notre Dame Press, 1998). Wolfe is also the editor of The New Religious Humanists: A Reader (Free Press, 1997) and the co-author of Books That Build Character (Touchstone, 1994), Climb High, Climb Far (Fireside, 1996), The Family New Media Guide (Touchstone, 1997), Circle of Grace: Praying with—and for—Your Children (Ballantine, 2000), and Bless This House: Prayer for Families and Children (Jossey- Bass, 2004). Wolfe is currently researching a book about the Renaissance Christian Humanists who gathered around the great scholar and writer, Desiderius Erasmus. The working title of that book is The Company of Good Letters: How Erasmus and His Circle of Renaissance Christian Humanists Shaped the Modern World.
Wolfe was born in 1959 and grew up in New York City, Long Island, and the south shore of Boston. He received his BA. summa cum laude, from Hillsdale College in Michigan and his MA in English literature from Oxford University.
A convert to the Roman Catholic Church, Wolfe is a member of the international lay movement Communion and Liberation. He and his family attend St. James Cathedral in Seattle. His wife, Suzanne, also teaches English literature at Seattle Pacific University. In 2004 her first novel,Unveiling was published to great acclaim by Paraclete Press. The Wolfes have four children—Magdalen, Helena, Charles, and Benedict—and live in the Richmond Beach neighborhood of Seattle.
Marta Zaknoun Marta Zaknoun was born and raised in Jerusalem. She graduated from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem with a degree in Communications and Journalism in 2008. Before moving to Toronto where she lives now with her husband and 3 children, she worked with different Catholic media channels and in the Public Relations Department at her university while finishing her studies. Since she moved to Canada, she has worked in the field of public relations with not-for-profit organizations, as well as in interpretation. She also writes articles about politics and Christians in the Middle East for Il Sussidiario, an Italian online newspaper.
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David Bloom David Bloom is founding co-artistic director of Contemporaneous, a New York-based ensemble of 21 musicians dedicated to performing the most exciting music of the present moment, and recently lauded in New York Times for a “ferocious, focused performance.” A devoted advocate for new music, he regularly works with living composers to bring new and recent works to life.
David has conducted over 120 world premieres at such venues as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, (le) poisson rouge, Merkin Concert Hall, and the Bang on a Can Marathon. He is a frequent guest conductor for NOW Ensemble, Hotel Elefant, JACK Quartet, Mantra Percussion, and TILT Brass, among others. He has worked with such composers as Donnacha Dennehy, Michael Harrison, Gabrielle Herbst, Yotam Haber, Dylan Mattingly, Andrew Norman, and Aaron Seigel and regularly works outside of the classical realm with such artists as Jherek Bischoff, David Byrne, and Courtney Love.
Especially active as a conductor of new opera throughout the US and Canada, David currently serves as music director on three traveling productions of works by Judd Greenstein, Anthony Gatto, and Todd Almond. He has recorded for the Innova, New Amsterdam, Mexican Summer, Mona, and Starkland labels. Also a passionate teaching artist, David is a conductor for Face the Music and Special Music School, and along with Contemporaneous, he is in residence at his alma mater, Bard College.
Evelyn Troester DeGraf Evelyn Troester DeGraf (Founder and Artistic Director of GHOSTLIGHT) is an internationally accomplished musical director, choral conductor, and music educator. Originally from Germany, Evelyn received her MA degree with a dual concentration in performance and music education at the renowned University of Music and Performing Arts in Munich in 2005. She is currently a Doctoral Candidate and Teaching Assistant at Columbia University’s prestigious Teachers College. Mrs.DeGraf’s focus on pedagogy and psychology has led her to develop teacher training workshops on creativity development and leadership, the subject of which she was invited to lecture at The ECONOMIST Human Potential Conference in New York. An enthusiastic teacher, Evelyn has taught piano and voice for over a decade to all ages, and especially enjoys offering choral and jazz improvisation classes.
As a well-travelled, versatile musician, Evelyn finds herself equallyat ease singing Strauss, Kurtág, de Falla, or Thelonious Monk. Throughout her singing career, Mrs. DeGraf has had the opportunity to work with master artists such as James
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Levine, Guiseppe Sinopoli, Candace Goetz, and Rhiannon. Currently, Evelyn studies with renowned voice teacher extraordinaire, Neil Semer. She released Mind, her solo debut album as a vocalist in 2006 on Fluxx Records, featuring a mix of jazz and popular music. She is also an accomplished pianist, guitarist, and has studied organ with Andrew Henderson and Jim Lake. Evelyn performs regularly as a substitute cantor, organist, and choral director at the Sacred Hearts and St. Stephen’s Church Choir in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn.
Evelyn, or “Evi,” as she is known among her friends, is a lover of the written word, yoga, the outdoors, and all things food related. She marvels at the people that the arts have brought into her life and the invaluable gifts she receives from making music with GHOSTLIGHT.
Christopher Vath Christopher Vath was born in New Orleans and attended North Texas State University, where he received a Bachelor of Music Degree in Piano Performance with Joseph Banowetz.
After doing graduate studies at the Julliard School in New York with Martin Canin, he resided in Italy, where he worked as a solo pianist, chamber musician, and chamber music teacher. On his return to the US, he started teaching piano and working as the music director/choir director at a church in New York City, activities that continue today. He has worked as composer, arranger, and pianist in the field of commercial music (VISA, Mercedes Benz, Anderson Consulting) and co-written music for two film scores, as well as incidental music for the theatrical production The Sacrament of Memory.
Two of his choral arrangements are published by World Library Publications. He gave solo recitals at Carnegie Hall in New York in 2005 and 2006. In 2005, in addition to his Carnegie Hall debut, he gave a private performance for Pope Benedict XVI at the papal summer residence.
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CONTEMPORANEOUS
Contemporaneous is an ensemble of 21 musicians whose mission is to bring to life the music of now. Recently recognized for a “ferocious, focused performance” (The New York Times) and for its “passionate drive...setting an extremely high bar for other ensembles to live up to” (I Care If You Listen), Contemporaneous performs and promotes the most exciting work of living composers through innovative concerts, commissions, recordings, and educational programs.
Based in New York City and active throughout the United States, Contemporaneous has performed over 80 concerts at a wide range of venues, including Lincoln Center, (le) poisson rouge, Merkin Concert Hall, Baryshnikov Arts Center, St. Ann’s Warehouse and the Bang on a Can Marathon. The ensemble has worked with artists as diverse as David Byrne, Donnacha Dennehy, Yotam Haber, Julia Wolfe, and Dawn Upshaw.
Contemporaneous has premiered more than 60 works, many of them large-scale pieces by emerging composers. Through its commissions and readiness to play challenging music, the ensemble encourages composers to take risks and defy constraints. Contemporaneous’ debut album, Stream of Stars — Music of Dylan Mattingly (Innova Recordings), has been featured on radio programs around the world, including WNYC’s “New Sounds”.
Dedicated to spreading new music to new audiences, Contemporaneous leads participatory programs for students in the communities where the ensemble performs. The ensemble has held residencies at Simon’s Rock College, the University of New Orleans, Williams College, and Bard College, where the group was founded in 2010. Find out more at contemporaneous.org.
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GHOSTLIGHT
Photo: Ghostlight, Germany, 2015, 14th International Chamber Choir Competition Marktoberdorf
GHOSTLIGHT is an elite New York City chamber choir that maintains a rigorous calendar of performances which showcase its varied repertoire of sacred and secular a cappella choral compositions from the 16th to the 21st centuries. Founded in 2010 by artistic director Evelyn Troester DeGraf, the ensemble is made up of 16-20 singers who work to achieve superior musicality, intonation, and choral blend through highly skilled vocal aptitude and musicianship.
Recent performances include such highlights as the PS1 Benefit at the MoMA New York, sold-out concerts in prolific venues in Germany, world premieres of new compositions, and a live performance with the Rolling Stones at the Barclays and Prudential Centers. In May of 2015 GHOSTLIGHT was invited to participate in the prestigious Marktoberdorf International Chamber Choir Competition in southern Germany and was awarded 3rd prize. Read more at ghostlightchorus.com/home.
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SHAW STREET COLLECTIVE
The Shaw Street Collective is a New Classical Ensemble dedicated to the creation of works, the re-imagination of chamber music, and educational outreach.
The ensemble was founded in 2014 by Mikolaj Debowski, Anthony Savidge, and Emma Rowlandson-O’Hara, and as a collective, frequently invites other artists to collaborate and widen the scope of creative possibilities. In the fall of 2015, cellist Alyssa Ramsay joined the Collective as a full time member. Since the combination of trumpet, trombone, percussion, and cello is so unusual, the group’s repertoire consists of original compositions and pieces arranged by its members. The Collective has collaborated with pianists, harpists, videographers, and photographers. Members of the group have performed with acclaimed ensembles such as the National Youth Orchestra of Canada, National Academy Orchestra, the Ceremonial Guard in Ottawa, Regina Symphony and Niagara Symphony.
In September of 2015, the Collective took part in a two-week residency in the Grasslands National Park in Saskatchewan, (with funding from the Saskatchewan Arts Board and Saskculture) followed by a national tour. Their concerts were met with critical acclaim and described as “absorbing” and “transformative.”
The SSC is committed to recording and making videos and is frequently in the studio. Their debut album is in the works.
More information at shawstreetcollective.ca
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Andrew Bloch Andrew Bloch is a founding partner of Human, one of the most highly regarded and successful music and sound design production companies in advertising today. Since opening its doors in 2001, Human has garnered numerous awards from Cannes Lions, LIA, Clio Awards, AICP, D&AD, the International Andy Awards, ADDY Awards, International Awards, First Boards Awards, and critical praise from all corners of the industry. An active composer, creative director and managing partner, Andrew has been involved in the production of thousands of commercials and long-form dramatic projects for television and film.
A graduate of The Mannes College Of Music, Andrew established himself as performer, producer, and recording engineer, working with such artists as George Benson, Keith Sweat, Teddy Riley, The Roches, Dr John and most notably Atlantic Starr with whom he toured as lead guitarist and recorded several Top 10 hits, including their No. 1 single “Always.” In addition to a career as a composer working in advertising Andrew has held annual composer workshops for BMI, The Berklee College Of Music and the NYU Steinhardt School.
He is currently on the board of the Musicians Foundation, the oldest independent non-profit organization of it’s kind in America, whose mission is to provide financial assistance to musicians and their families in times of need.
Timothy Dusenbury Timothy Dusenbury (b. 1982) studied music composition with Howard Frazin at Longy School of Music in Cambridge, MA. He received an MA in Liturgical Music from St. John’s School of Theology and Seminary in Collegeville, MN, where he studied with Brian Campbell and Robert LeBlanc. Recent collaborations include works for the NIH Community Orchestra (2013), The National Catholic Youth Choir (2014), and Trio d’Amis (2015). He is a regular contributor to the WordSong Project in Boston and Washington, D.C. He and his family live in Falls Church, VA, where he teaches music and serves as organist and music director at St. Philip Catholic Church.
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Jonathan Fields Jonathan Fields is a composer, music teacher and lecturer who in his career has explored many regions of the musical world. After graduating first in his class from Mannes College of Music in 1981, he joined David Horowitz Music Associates, and has been an award-winning composer of music for advertising, film and television. An accomplished guitarist, he has played for numerous recording sessions as well as for composers Phillip Glass and Glen Branca. In recent years he has been a frequent lecturer and musical educator, and the author of several publications aimed at introducing new audiences to the treasures of European and American classic and traditional music. Currently, Mr. Fields is composing music for television and film through his company L-Sid Productions. He also works as Music Director for Basilica of Regina Pacis in Brooklyn. Mr. Fields resides in Brooklyn with his wife and three children.
Gabriele Vanoni Gabriele Vanoni was born in Milan in 1980. After a few international experiences as a very young composer, he started his musical studies at the Conservatory of Milan, where he graduated in Piano with Maria Isabella De Carli and in Composition with Giuseppe Giuliano. He continued his education with a PhD in Music Composition at Harvard University, under the guidance of Julian Anderson, Chaya Czernowin and Hans Tutschku. At Harvard, he also received instruction by Helmut Lachenmann, Brian Ferneyhough, and Tristan Murail.
His music has been performed in Europe and Americas, in venues and festivals such as Carnegie Hall, Biennale di Venezia, ManiFeste, Moscow Conservatory, Royaumont Voix Nouvelles, June in Buffalo, IRCAM, Wellesley Composers Conference, NYU, BIT Teatergarasjen in Bergen and Accademia Chigiana di Siena, among many others. Likewise, various soloists and ensembles have now been involved in performing his music, including the Ensemble Intercontemporain, San Francisco Contemporary Music Players,Talea Ensemble, Moscow Studio for New Music Ensemble, Ensemble L’arsenale, Mario Caroli, Diotima Quartet, Les Cris de Paris, Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, and many more.
Besides his activity as a composer, Gabriele Vanoni served as the artistic director and founder of Suggestioni, a festival of Italian Music in United States. He also holds a degree in Business for the Arts, Culture and Communication at Bocconi University.
After two years in Paris attending Cursus 1 and 2 at IRCAM, he moved back to the United States, and he is currently Assistant Professor in Composition at Berklee College of Music. Recent commissions include a piece for the 2015 Universal Exposition in Milan (Nutrire La Musica) and a new piece for Accordion and String Orchestra. He currently lives in the Boston area. 52 COMPOSERS
David Horowitz David Horowitz is a composer who began playing piano by ear at age 3. As a young adult, he played with Gil Evans and Tony Williams, and later became Composer in Residence at the Arena Stage in Washington, DC. He has also arranged albums for Peter Allen, Carol Hall and others at Elektra Records.
Horowitz composed for choreographer Twyla Tharp, and for the art films of Ian Hugo and Anais Nin; for the Japanese mime Yas Hakoshima; and a number of European features.
Through his music production company, David Horowitz Music Associates (DHMA), he scored thousands of TV, radio and cinema commercials, creating memorable tracks in almost every style and genre, and earning numerous awards and prizes, including seven Clios for Original Music.
After 30 years in “the business of music,” Horowitz closed his company and began to concentrate on other musical endeavors. In the past two years he has scored films for an international Jewish relief organization as well as an independent feature film (2016 release, Patient 001). In September he was part of a 2-concert tribute to the music of the late Claudio Chieffo, in Forli, Italy.
Sebastián Modarelli Sebastián Modarelli studied at the National Conservatory of Music in his native Buenos Aires, Argentina. In 1998 he was awarded the highest prize at the National Composers’ Competition Promociones Musicales and, a year later, he won the First Prize in the triennial Composers’ Contest of the National Academy of Arts in Argentina. He held the position of Organist and Music Professor at the Seminary of the Archdiocese of Buenos Aires, guided by then Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio (now Pope Francis). In 2005 Modarelli moved to Rochester, Minnesota after being offered the position of Music Director and Organist at St. John the Evangelist Church. Some of his noteworthy latest premieres include Born in Buenos Aires, commissioned and premiered by the Metro Chamber Orchestra in New York City in 2010, and performed later in its full version by the Rochester Symphony Orchestra in 2012, Variations on Picardy for Oboe and Organ, dedicated to renowned organist Jeff Davis in 2011, William Shakespeare for Choir and Organ, commissioned by the Albert Lea Cantori and the Duet for Cello and Organ, premiered by the Svyati Duo (UK) in 2012. In November 2013, the VocalEssence Ensemble Singers, under the direction of Philip Brunelle, premiered What I Have Seen and Heard, an hour long work entirely based on St. John’s Gospel, and commissioned on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the Church of St. John the Evangelist (Rochester, MN).
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1990 N. California Blvd. Valla & Associates is an international business law Suite 1060 firm, specializing in assisting mid-market companies Walnut Creek, CA 94596 USA who wish to enter, grow in, or leverage off of the United States market. We assist our clients in all 925.705.7623 phases of business and corporate growth, [email protected] with particular focus on their commercial and www.vallalaw.com contractual relationships, and any litigation needs.
69 SPONSORS
Tecnomatic is the EOM’s and TIER 1 suppliers best partner in product industrialization and process development, in design and manufacturing special machine and automatic lines. www.tecnomatic.it
70 You Are a Good for Me August 19 - 25, 2016
www.meetingrimini.org/eng Via Flaminia 18, 47923 Rimini, Italia Tel. (+39) 0541 783100 [email protected]
71 New York Encounter (the Encounter) is an annual three-day public cultural event in the heart of New York City.
The Encounter strives to witness to the new life and knowledge generated by the faith, following Pope Benedict’s claim that “the intelligence of faith has to become the intelligence of reality.”
In pursuit of this goal—and according to St. Paul’s suggestion to “test everything and retain what is good”—the Encounter aims to discover, affirm, and offer to everyone truly human expressions of the desire for truth, beauty, and justice. The Encounter thus becomes a meeting point for people of different beliefs, traditions, and cultures striving for reciprocal understanding, shared building, and true friendship.
Through a vast array of conferences, artistic performances, and exhibits, the Encounter is both a dwelling place and a point of departure for men and women wishing to live fully and to promote a society of truth and love.
New York Encounter Venue: Metropolitan Pavilion 125 W 18th St New York, NY 10011
Office: 28 Attorney Street New York, NY 10002 [email protected] www.newyorkencounter.org 72